The Old Anubis House
by BlackCat46
Summary: Future fic. Mara and Jerome Clarke's great-great-great granddaughter investigates the house that her three times great grandparents were educated in. Follow her story as she discovers things in Anubis house. (R&R. I own only OC. AU.) T because I'm paranoid. One shot.


_The sky was dark, _

_The trees had no bark._

_The ground was black,_

_The flags all cracks._

_The clouds were grey._

_This was any other day_

_In a life where the only light_

_Was in the deepest night._

__Mara read that poem so many times. She loved the old paper. Mara Anna Woodward, named after her great-great-great grandmother Mara Clarke.

Her great-great-great grandmother had been educated on this site, living in this old ruin. Mara looked about at the decaying staircase, the faded red carpet.

She pictured a smiling woman, running down that staircase, back when it was all in it's better days.

She saw a girl sat on the decayed old sofa, seeing it all nice and comfy, looking very similar to her, doing her homework.

A blonde boy ran past her, dressed in a football kit. Another boy followed him, this one with dirty blonde hair and wearing a football kit.

A boy sat with the studying girl. He had big hair, dark blonde.

Two girls, one with dark blonde curls and one with long, blonde hair were sat doing each other's nails.

A chestnut haired girl and a mousy brunette were gossiping happily together.

An African boy, a redhead and a girl with tight black curls were sat laughing.

Mara Woodward enjoyed the sight. There was a chandelier above her, even now.

In the vision of the house in nicer days, it was sparkling with sunlight. In reality, Mara saw it, covered in nine and a half decades of dust.

She sighed. She went to find some things.

She found a bedroom, barely a cupboard. The bed was unmade, as if someone had been asleep there. But it wore thick dust and it was rotting. It once would have been a beautiful place for someone to sleep.

White blankets and pillows, clean mattress. All specially cared for, like someone had taken pride in keeping things beautiful.

A special lamp was by the bed. Mara looked at it. She imagined an inscription on it. "I love you."

It would have belonged to the person who inhabited this small but once-happy room. The ceiling had partially caved in and there were cracks and holes in the wall.

Mara carefully looked in the wardrobe. Beautiful clothes rested there, all moth eaten and faded, but once beautiful and they would have belonged to a woman.

Upstairs, it was all empty. The mattresses were stripped and moth eaten. All the ceilings were fallen in and there were rotten floorboards everywhere and Mara had to be very careful, exploring the old place. She found old diaries, knowing they belonged to girls.

She read one.

"Mara just told me that she and Jerome plan to get married when they've left high school. Willow and Alfie have already left, they were so keen to get to college. Trudy cried when they left, saying she'd miss them. I can't believe my time here is over, after three years. I feel like I'm leaving my home. So, I want to leave this here for people to find when I've gone. Much love, to my loyal diary and you, sweet reader. Nina Martin, almost Nina Rutter."

Another said "Well, my time at Anubis is at an end and so are all our mysteries. It's sad, I'll miss it. Even Victor's gone. Trudy's decided she's going to keep living here. She's marrying Jasper sometime in the summer. I really hope they get on OK. I'll miss Nina most. She's my best friend, but she and Fabian are going to get married and move away while I live in NYC and run my fashion company. So much love in this old place, from Amber Millington."

Mara found a very old diary.

"Eddie just told me that we'll be living together when we go off to college. Neither of us feel ready for marriage yet, but we managed to make his dad flip out. Because I'm going to have Eddie's child. It was so funny, he went bright purple. I'm kind of sad that I'm leaving this place. I'm gonna miss all the mysteries and all the fun. I love this old place, my friends. With love to this place, from Patricia Williamson."

"Wow, five whole years here. I can't believe it. And now, we've graduated and we're going to college. I really wish we weren't, even though I hated doing homework and school, I have such good memories of this old place. I can't believe it's still standing, after all that happened in it. I remember Jerome trying to cook, I remember only three days ago, Dexter and his yucky marshmallow frittata. Ugh. Well, I'm going to go. I hope that you, reader, don't have to risk your life like we did.

So thank you and Sibuna, from Joy Mercer."

There was a little notebook in another room.

"My future baby names.

Apple for a girl, Tree for a boy.

Or I'll have Harmony and Alfie Junior.

It's strange to be leaving my beloved Anubis house. I started dating my Alfie here and I never want to leave. He got me Cyril, my new hedgehog.

With love to you, and my beautiful Anubis house, Willow Jenks."

KT had left the poem to her, Mara guessed after reading Mara Jaffray's diary.

"KT just showed me a brilliant poem. I will miss KT, she was so much fun to be around. Jerome and I are letting Poppy spend the summer with us. We will move in together and hopefully, live together forever. With love to my diary's reader and Anubis house, I hope it all goes well for you. Mara Jaffray."

Downstairs, on the rotten work top in the kitchen, a little notepad said "Well, this is my last note. My eyes aren't working very well and I may die very soon. My darling Jasper died last night. I'm not very far behind. We will be together soon and I hate to think of what will happen to our beautiful home. My two lovely children are going to wait to bury their father as he requested that we are buried together.

And to my children, I love you. Your daddy loved you. Thank you for bringing us joy and laughter. Love from Mum and Dad. x"

Mara burst into tears. She'd seen so many sad things, all of which had meant that they were leaving. This old woman's note had touched Mara. She'd clearly adored her children and her husband.

She looked through her old church records. The burial of her three times great grandparents and these old people had been recorded there.

She found the graves and marked them on her tracing paper. She took them home, alongside a photo of the ruined old house. She put them up on her bedroom wall, to remember the people there.

Mara Anna Woodward grew up to restore the old house to it's former glory and it became a museum. It was said to be haunted, but Mara herself was fond of the ghosts.

Sixty years later, she died peacefully in the old house, lay on the bed her three times great grandma had once slept on. Her grave now rests next to her great great great grandparents.


End file.
